The present invention relates to a novel process for preparing sorbic acid.
Sorbic acid and salts thereof have excellent antifungal activity and have been effectively employed as a preservative for foods. Sorbic acid is industrially manufactured by reacting crotonaldehyde with ketene to form polyester which can be converted to sorbic acid by heating or by means of acid, base or ion-exchange resin. However, such a process is not necessarily advantageous in point of its procedures or economy because the handling of polyester and the recovery or purification of sorbic acid are troublesome and also because of many process steps which require complicated process control.